Happy Surprises

I’ve been working on what might be called spring cleaning here. I’m purging and organizing cabinets and it feels so good to do it. It’s definitely true for me that clearing physical clutter removes mental clutter as well. When we moved to this house a little over a year ago, it was such a last minute crazy thing that I didn’t unpack and organize as I would have liked. Of course I also had a baby on my hip and two wild little boys making messes everywhere (Both of these still apply. The baby is just heavier!) Then we spent the next nine months working on our old house rather than really settling into the new. Now I’m tackling those places where we just shoved things on the shelves. I desperately want to simplify. It’s hard with such a large family, and I have to adjust my expectations to meet my reality. I suspect I’ll never have a truly “simple” life (does anyone?) but I can at least have organized bathroom cabinets.

The other night I dreamed that I cut Mabel’s bangs. I guess that means that despite all the more important things going on in our lives, I have her hair on my mind. It’s a mess, but Jonny is opposed to cutting her bangs. With our other little girls we didn’t, preferring to let them grow out. But I don’t remember their hair being quite so messy and in their eyes. We try clipping it back, but Mabel pulls clips out. Oh, well. I’m actually not too worried about it regardless of what my dreams say.

Many years ago, when I graduated from college, Jonny threw me a big surprise party. Friends and relatives came from all over to celebrate at his parent’s house. Graduating felt like such an accomplishment (Seth was born at the beginning of my last year of college.) I never suspected a thing, and it was a wonderful surprise that made me feel very loved. Since then, he’s tried to surprise me a few more times, but has made the mistake of telling me before the surprise happened, usually quite necessary because when you have children it’s hard to pull off a surprise. I remember one night when I thought we were headed home from Mass, Jonny told me that instead we were going out to dinner with friends to celebrate my birthday. I panic a little over unexpected social situations, and this can translate to anger. For a few minutes, I was so mad at him! That must sound awful, but if you’re introverted like I am, you probably understand. One place that I’ve found that I do enjoy surprises is when I’m dyeing yarn. For me, that’s part of the allure of natural dyeing. That little row of mini skeins above is a set that turned out quite differently from what I envisioned when I started. The colors I ended up with remind me of spring, and match what I’m seeing outside right now. Definitely a happy surprise. And of course that birthday dinner with friends was happy too and I’m grateful that Jonny risked upsetting me a little, knowing that in the end I’d be glad he did.

Sometimes life feels like a series of risks. Or maybe that’s just me…

p.s. I’m planning to update my shop on Monday at 11 am ET. Not a huge update, but there will be some yarn, soap, and silks. Do you see that crazy bright blue/green egg in my picture above? I can’t get over it. I have three skeins of yarn that almost match it. Quite unintentional, of course.

p.p.s. Don’t be fooled by the crib. Mabel prefers to sleep with us at night, because sleep is best when you have a couple of heads to kick at regular intervals all night long.

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Comments

~ Hello Ginny,
I loVe all the colors in this beautiful post & Mabel’s carefree hair!! 🙂
Mabel’s little purple mitts are adorable.
Is there a pattern you followed? I’d like to make that size for some Littles I know.
Best,
Shell ~

Thanks for posting Ginny, it always feels like a conversation with a friend when I read you😁
Our number 6 (our last) is 19 months and still in bed with us. When I was pregnant I said that this baby would sleep in his crib from the start!! Ha! Then he was born and I loved sleeping with him. Somehow it is so much harder to let him go since he is the last. Also, my other 5 have their own beds that they stay in all night, so I know it will happen eventually…

I never understood this obsession with little girls hair. It must be difficult for her to see with her hair in her eyes all the time so I just cut my daughter’s hair to keep it out of her eyes. She was much happier and I didn’t have to look at her messy hair in her eyes all the time. She wouldn’t let me put a clip in her hair or even a pony tail as she would pull out anything I put in her hair so I gave up and made my life simpler by cutting it. She was happier and didn’t care her hair was shorter. But that’s just me and I’m not saying that’s what other people should do.

For me, it’s less about obsession with hair, more about knowing that if I wait it out a little longer, her hair will all be at a length that it stays out of her eyes more naturally and she will also learn to tolerate having it all pulled back (assuming she’s like my other daughter’s were-but you never know!) I find bangs to be too much maintenance-always needing to be trimmed. But that’s just me! 🙂

That’s what I always did….little ponytail or little braid. Using the tiny little elastics was key. They are much harder to pull out. (And stay put well even overnight!) I think they are light and small enough that they easily are forgotten about.

I’m one of those extroverted introvert types to a point. I’m probably borderline between an extrovert and introvert and my reactions depend on a myriad of things including time of year, life stressors, anxiety, and how normal/usual something is. I don’t do well in unexpected social situations unless I know the people pretty well of unless someone sticks some alcohol in me. Sometimes, I need a few days to recover. Other times, I can slug some water and get out there and do it again. It just depends on things.

With all that said, unexpected pleasant surprises are lovely. Eventually.

Ahhh, surprises! I have asked my husband several times to be a surprise-party-thrower for me but at the last minute I always chicken out and tell him to not bother. It overwhelms me to have such a fuss made in my sake. I think this weird back and forth surprise-party game will continue, though, just for tradition’s sake. Maybe one year he really will succeed and it will happen and then it will be big surprise.

The cot bit made me chuckle…we’ve just moved our nearly three year old to a bed out of the cot as we have another due very soon and I’m trying to get ready. However he won’t go to sleep on his bed so now we are in this strange routine where we put him to bed in his new bed….after 10 minutes or so of him getting out and yelling for us we put him in his cot…he falls straight to sleep….my husband transfers him to his bed…..and by midnight he is has woken and is bed with us!!!!!! And so it goes on…every night…and every day I think…this will be the night he sleeps in his own bed!!!

I love natural beauty surprises too (like yarn and sunsets), but dread and despise the “planned” surprise events. The ones where everybody else was in on the joke and they’re all waiting to see how you take it, to my feelings these are always more akin to attacks.

Maybe its because those planned “surprises” usually include a level of trickery and deception, and its always disturbing to see how well those close to you can fib.

Love the hair! My daughter had front growing hair like that too. Always in her eyes…until she cut it!

I totally understand where you are coming from! I get so anxious when I’m out in social situations. No one thinks I’m an introvert, probably because I have so many kids, but I am. I make due, but I am always doing self examination at the same moment that I am in mid conversation with someone. I know, I’m a mess.

I read the title and thought, well, you know, another baby, of course! Lol.

The photo of her sitting on the bed with what I’m assuming is morning bedhead is fantastic. She’s adorable! Harmon’s hair is forever in his face and he’s had a professional haircut that didn’t do a lick of good to tame it except make him look less like a baby.

My oldest daughter had hair like that. One day she decided to cut her bangs herself (I think she was 2 or 3). She looked awful and she ended up getting a professional pixie cut to try to hide the mess. Be forewarned and keep scissors away from Mabel!

The dollar store elastics that you can buy in a 500-pack are very effective for baby-fine hair – give her something yummy to eat, pull the front into a little whale spout, and she likely won’t even notice. It’s not as heavy as a clip, and MUCH harder to pull out.

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Hello! My name is Ginny. I believe that when you slow down and savor the small things, you don’t have to wish for a different life; you can discover beauty in the life you already have. {Find out more here…}

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